Restoration

“We sit to settle the self on the self and to let the life force bloom.”

-Dainin Katagiri

The Webster’s New World Dictionary defines restorative as able to restore health, consciousness etc. I like Katagiri’s words: settling the self on the self. Restoration involves a kind of alignment. Alignment is familiar to us from yoga or fitness. We can understand that to be in alignment creates a sense of ease or efficiency. Yet alignment isn’t just available to us on a physical level. We can actually settle into ourselves as Katagiri suggests and find a greater ease and possibility of mind, body, and spirit.

I also think in terms of giving myself back to myself. I recently returned from 8 days of sea kayaking and beach lounging. Restorative is the word that arrived back home with the sea salt on the pfds and the sand in the back seat of the car. For me, gazing out to sea offers deep rest and the ingredients for realignment. As my mind softens and my body slows down, all the elements around me become clearer. The water on the shell beach releases colors I never knew existed and the cries of the osprey echo within me. As the days went by, I felt myself settling. I felt more awake to what was around me – but I also felt less lost to myself.

Back here at my desk, my priorities feel clearer. I feel a sense of realignment and readiness for what is in front of me. I also see more clearly how fatigue and loss of perspective can separate us from who we are and where the path back to ourselves can be found. Like any path that is unattended, it becomes overgrown. Stillness, vastness, emptiness, and spaciousness can support our search for ourselves. Daily meditation, yoga, and awareness practices can point the way.

I grew up with a strong connection to the ocean. My father was born on Martha’s Vineyard and I always spend time on the coast. As a young adult, I returned again and again to the sea for perspective and comfort. A number of years later, after my first or second meditation retreat, I remember thinking ” now I won’t need to long for the ocean.” I had found a path that brought me the ingredients that I needed to “settle myself on myself and to let the life force bloom.” And it is true, I am no longer dependent on the ocean to hold these qualities in my life. And yet, its beauty and vastness remain deeply restorative for me.

Karen Beetle is a therapist and mindfulness teacher. Her next mindfulness class begins on October 2nd. You can reach her at 424-7516 or kabeetle@aol.com.